1. With a fork, spoon or whisk, mix chia seeds with a small amount of almond milk in a bowl – about 1/4 cup. I find that putting the entire amount of liquid at once tends to create lumps. Allow to sit for 5 mins or so.

2. Incorporate the rest of the milk, being careful to completely dissolve the little chia clumps. Fold in raisins.

3. Allow to sit for at least another 15 minutes or overnight in the fridge.

4. Just before serving, mix in your sweetener of choice, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg.

5. For extra deliciousness top with banana slices, fresh fruit or berries and slivered almonds.

Carmella's Note

Some raw recipes call for the seeds that are obtained by slicing the bean in two and delicately scraping them off the shell. For my part, I prefer to use vanilla beans in the form of ‘Liquid Vanilla’ – an awesome trick I learned from Café Gratitude.

* To make Liquid Vanilla, roughly chop 3 vanilla beans and blend them with 1 cup water in a high-power blender. The resulting mixture can be used in place of vanilla extract and will keep for one month or so refrigerated in an airtight container. For texture purposes, I like to use vanilla powder in recipes that don’t have a water content, such as chocolate candy.